The weblog of Irfan Yusuf, bush lawyer, humorist and award-winning author, once a small-c conservative but now politically left right out. His often irreverent take on things appears in some newspapers in Australia and New Zealand and online. His comic memoir "Once Were Radicals: My Years As A Teenage Islamo-fascist" was published in May 2009 and won the Iremonger Award for Public Issues Writing.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Thoughts on New Zealand Anti-Terror Strategies

A tiny minority of young Australian-born Muslims are increasingly being seen as a security threat.

Australian police recently arrested three young Muslim men, joining 15 or so co-religionists, the bulk of them born and brought up in Australia.

The most recent annual report by the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) identifies a strategic change in the approach of terrorist groups such as al Qaeda, a change which happened in 2002.

Dr Paul Buchanan's response on these pages supports the assessment of Australian security expert Clive Williams of the Australian National University. Williams argues that Australian involvement in Iraq and other overseas conflicts has put Australia on the terrorists' radar.

But in fighting terrorism, authorities must understand that Islamic teachings aren't the problem, nor are most Muslims.

Even critics will agree with the SIS's assessment that extremist groups have focused on recruiting "individuals inspired rather than directed who were citizens or permanent residents of the countries in question, and who were not previously regarded as of major security concern".

New Zealand's media have shown sensitivity to the religious sentiments of minorities, and Muslim communities need to take some responsibility. One cannot expect any religious denomination to act as an intelligence or law enforcement agency, but community leaders can limit the attraction of extremism by helping young Muslims get maximum exposure to the broad spectrum of Islamic theology and culture.

Sadly, some migrant Muslim communities treat Islam as a cultural relic. The needs of young people and converts are ignored, giving extremists more recruitment opportunities.

Those believed to be responsible for the London attacks were young emotional and ideological refugees from Muslim mosques and institutions uninterested in assisting young people caught swinging between spiritual and cultural poles.

The migration experience is traumatic. Sadly, the greater trauma of children growing up between multiple cultural and religious values and expectations is often ignored.

Many young Muslims feel alien, whether at home or outside, unsure of their identity and more prone to depression and anxiety than their peers who don't experience such cultural confusion. Those at the helm of Muslim institutions must understand that any failure to assist young Muslims manage identity-related crises could pose a security threat for the broader community.

Australia's leading Muslim organisations have not provided a good example. The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils has no youth representatives on its board and is composed almost exclusively of middle-aged men born outside Australia. Its adviser on youth affairs is an imam in his 60s with no English.

Subsequent generations of Australian Muslims find mainstream mosques irrelevant and instead are attracted to youth centres managed by more radical imams who speak fluent English and who gained their ideas studying in Saudi Arabia.

New Zealand's Muslim community doesn't have some of the negative features found in Australia. However, mosque management committees are often controlled by first-generation migrants, with no strategy for inter-generational transfer.

Muslim institutions must ensure Islam doesn't become a piece of cultural baggage left at the airport. If young people and converts are not catered for, most will eventually leave Islam altogether. But some may fall under the spell of extremist theology.

* Irfan Yusuf is a Sydney lawyer who has acted for Muslim bodies and independent schools. First published in the New Zealand Herald on 13 April 2006.

We are safer with jews. At every airport muslims should be required to convert to judaism. Then they might be allowed on Air AL the Israeli national airline.

If they won't convert to Judaism they be must crammed into old 747s which can be flown by remote control into the middle of Mecca. Hopefully get some of the ones on the ground as well.

If they want just, as the plane is diving into Mecca they should be allowed to jump out. Who knows Allah might save one. Or perhaps we will just see Allah's mercy.

There are dozens of old 747s all over the world.

There are also lots of obsolete cruise missles. Why arent we tying muslims to cruise missles and flying them up and down the main streets of muslim cities? When they run low on fuel just fly them in the front door of a mosque.

Not as traumatic as the revenge of the white races against the mud people. Australians and Kiwis are mobilising against the hated muslim menace. None of the muslim scum will survive the Final Crusade.

We will hear their blubbering as they are led to their extermination. Their pleadings will only make us prouder of our white race.

We will slit their throats and watch them the same way they torture sheep and goats. But we will not let them die so easily. They will be fed feet first into mincing machines with the carcasses of feral pigs. The pig/muslim mince will then be fed to the crocodiles at the Zoo.

Especially repugnant muslims will not go through the mincer but will be force fed bacon and then be smeared in pig fat and then be torn apart by crocodiles.

Every mosque will contain a mincing machine and a pond of crocodiles. In this way white tourism will benefit.

When all the muslims are dead we will turn the mosques to dust and put synagogues in their place. And then when public opinion rises against the jew they will follow the same path as the muslim scum.

According to the New Zealanders new terrorists are citizens or permanent residents of the countries in question, and who were not previously regarded as of major security concern.

All muslims are suspects particulary mentally-ill ones such as Irfan Yusuf. How much is a human life worth? We should go to any expense to save Australian lives. Even the expense of deporting every muslim. They can take their hotted-up cars and kebab shops with them. Anthony Mundine goes as well. And any other member of the aboriginal species stupid enough to convert to Islam. 27th of December every year would be ideal for celebrating a No More Muslim Australia. It's about time the government declared David Hicks to be a citizen of Yemen or some other typical muslim hole.

n/l, perhaps you might remember that Catholicism is also a non-European phenomenon. Indian Catholics face threats not from Muslims but from Hindu zealots from a party that until recently ruled India federally.

your concern for Catholics would be laudatory were it not restricted to white extreme-Right Catholics. And I'm sorry, but I will never respect the right of European Catholics to slaughter 6 million Jews!

They really will let just about anybody into law scholl these days. Our "fiend" once again demonstrates the incongruencies of Islam with Australian, nay civilised culture. You fool. All you do is serve to prove our point that people like you don't belong here or in any civilised society. The many hard working Muslims who are just as irate about extremeists in their motherlands as we are must also be ashamed of the likes of you.

Have you noticed how you are in a distinct minority of Irfan supporters? There is a reason for that. Come to think of it, that's kind of how democracy and sephocracy work. The majority is right. The minorities can put up with it or get the hell out.

b. Examples where you believe I should have condemned such people and why I of all people should have cendemned them anymore than you should have condemned Anglicans and Catholics who protect pedophiles.

Australian Jews respond to Israels call of war. They pack their bags, get into the army, and join the zionist regime in its massacre of Arab civilians.

Australian Lebanese, or Syrians, or Iranians are yet to return home to join armies against Israeli civilians.

Absolutely pathetic. That just shows that Australian Jews are by no means loyal to Australia but to Israel. If Israel were to fight Australia, we would have all "Australian Jews" turning guns on their aussie neighbours.